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BANGKOK, 16 November 2012 (IRIN) - Five months after communal violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine State, the plight of the 800,000 Muslim Rohingya there has worsened: Renewed violence in late October left more than 100,000 displaced, according to the government.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), welcomes the vindication of two women humanrights defenders in The Gambia following two years of judicial harassment.

The Government of Sudan must immediately investigate the arbitrary detention and torture of freelance Sudanese journalist Somia Ismail Ibrahim Hendusa, who was found abandoned and in extremely poor health on a Khartoum street on 2 November following her arrest by Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) officers on 29 October.

On 1 November 2012, human rights defender Ms Aminatou Haidar was physically and verbally attacked and threatened with a knife by Moroccan police in El Ayoun in a four hour long assault that left her car damaged. Aminatou Haidar is a renowned human rights defender and the Chairperson of the Collectif des Défenseurs Sahraouis des Droits de l'Homme – CODESA(Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders). Her human rights work focuses on advocating for the rights of the Sahrawi people and the independence of the Western Sahara.

Women political prisoners in quarantined section of Evin prison, protesting against violent and invasive body cavity searches and sexual abuse have gone on hunger strike since Tuesday 30th October 2012. According to the relatives of these prisoners, they were brutally searched by the hands of three female guards after the ward being raided by Evin security forces.

News that Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has won the Sakharov Prize – an award from the European Parliament for human rights and freedom of thought - came as her health deteriorated due to a hunger strike in protest at the Iranian authorities’ refusal to allow her face-to-face visits with her 13-year-old daughter and five-year-old son.

During the protests against the Sudanese government austerity measures which started in June and while 12 women had been detained During the protests against the Sudanese government austerity measures which started in June and incommunicado for 6-8 weeks for most of them. The Sudanese government released most of the detainees arrested during the 2 months protests on August 17-20, at least 200 detainees had been released among them the 12 women.

Women activists challenging the fundamental structures of their communities and calling for new terms of peaceful coexistence between the Sudanese people, are facing prosecution, sexual violence, and harsh punishment by Sudan's security service, says Nazik Kabalo

Saudi Arabia is planning to establish a work-zone to be staffed exclusively by women. With women facing many barriers to joining the country's workforce, experts wonder if the zones will only reinforce segregation.

Women make up more than 60 percent of high school graduates in Saudi Arabia, but represent just 15 percent of the country's workforce. Many of them go abroad to earn an advanced degree, only to return home unable to find a job.